Ask the Right Questions

"Begin with the end in mind."

- Steven Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Our first step in working with you is to help you understand how your personal financial goals must inform your business wealth decisions. Too often, business owners focus on the wrong questions. They worry more about tending to their business’ day-to-day and year-to-year operational growth and don’t drive the business so their personal life goals can be met. This can lead to disappointments and unnecessary losses.

Here, for example, are some common mistakes we see business owners make:

• Reinvesting all of their profits back into the business to maximize revenue growth.

• Trying to do it all in-house, ballooning capital investment and operational costs beyond the growth sustainable in a competitive marketplace.

• Failing to understand how they’ll eventually get out of the business, business owners erroneously assume that the private investors will base their purchase price on the business’ operational profitability.

We help clients ask the right questions,
and find the answers:

• Is your business creating personal wealth for you and your family?

• How much longer do you want to work in the business before retiring or moving on to another venture?

• What annual after-tax income do you want to have during your retirement?

• What kind of personal and financial legacy do you want to leave to your family?

• Who do you want to transition the ownership of the business?

• Will it provide enough wealth to you so you can meet your personal goals?

• What goals are important to you? Getting full value for the business in your pocketbook? Transferring the wealth to your children? Providing benefits to key employees at the time of sale or succession? Maintaining the integrity of the business? Other?

• Do you know who you want to transfer the business to? Family? Employees? Partners? A 3rd party?